McKenna: We Were Made to Work Hard Sunday, 27th Nov 2022 19:54 Town boss Kieran McKenna felt National League North Buxton made his side work hard for their 4-0 FA Cup second-round victory. Conor Chaplin scored twice and Gassan Ahadme, his first goal for the club on his full debut, and Kayden Jackson once each. “We knew what the game was and what we needed to do,” McKenna said. “Of course, you want a professional performance. “You know you’re going to have most of the play and the opposition are going to try and make it difficult, so it’s about trying to make chances, score goals, make sure you give nothing away at the other end, clean sheet. “We wanted to start with a strong team and try and get players off and manage their minutes later in the game and also give some of the younger players some opportunities, so I think we managed to tick most of the boxes tonight.” It took until the 33rd minute for the Blues to break the deadlock through Chaplin with the Bucks having provided determined opposition in the early stages of the match. “Credit to them, they were well organised, put their bodies on the line and made it tough,” McKenna continued. “They certainly didn’t make it easy for the goals to come, so we had to work hard right the way through the game and they kept going, so credit to [Buxton manager] Jamie [Vermiglio] and to the players.” McKenna went over to the Buxton fans at the end, although says that was partly as he was talking to Bucks keeper Theo Richardson, who was at Manchester United during the Blues’ boss’s time at the Old Trafford academy. “I was also talking with their goalkeeper, who I knew as well,” he said. “I was talking to him as we went across. “When we had Bracknell in the first round, it was their night. Tonight is nice for us to get through, but it’s a massive game for Buxton and credit to them for getting to this round and it’s a night hopefully for their players and manager and fans even though they didn’t get the big upset they would have loved, but they came and gave themselves a really good account and hopefully it gives them a boost for the rest of the season. “I thought their supporters were really vocal and stayed with the team, as you would want them to.” Asked whether it was good for Ahadme to get a confidence-boosting first Blues goal, he reflected: “I don’t think he’s lacking in that department but, of course, in your first start it’s nice to get off the mark with a goal. “He got a lot of first contacts in the box in the first half, which is something that he would give us and I think as time goes on now we’ll be able to coordinate those movements a little bit better and find him in more dangerous positions in the box.” Chaplin had gone 12 matches without a goal before today and McKenna hopes his two today are the beginning of another run for the forward, who now has eight for the season. “I knew it was a few and Conor’s a goalscorer, so he wants to be in and around the goals,” the Northern Irishman said. “He always gives us a lot, he gives us a lot on the ball, he gives us a lot off the ball, he gives a lot in the dressing room and with his energy. “But he wants to be in the goals and we need him to be in and around the goals. Nice for him to get his couple tonight. “He’s always told me he’s a streaky goalscorer, so hopefully that’s the start of another streak.” McKenna was able to reassure fans that Wes Burns hadn’t suffered a serious problem, the Welshman having been substituted shortly after undergoing treatment in the second half. “He’s fine, he just got a little kick, so we just wanted to get him off,” he said. However, there was less welcome news regarding Greg Leigh and Panutche Camara, who were both expected to play having recovered from knocks but who were absent from the 20-man squad. “Greg has a scan tomorrow, he has an issue with his knee close to the site of his last injury,” McKenna added. “He came through 60 minutes [against Portsmouth] but very shortly after in training, he felt an issue as he was moving to receive a ball, so he’s got a scan tomorrow. We’ll see how he is. “Panutche had issues and has issues with his groin area from the injury that he had when he was at Plymouth and that’s why we’ve had to be patient with him. “We got him through 70 minutes the other night but he still didn’t feel right during or after the game, so that needs to be reviewed.” McKenna was asked who he wants from Monday’s third-round draw: “Honestly, I’m open to all avenues. It would be nice to get a really challenging big club and go and test ourselves. “But we want to go as far in the competition as we can and we know if we stay in the competition for longer then those games are going to be unavoidable anyway. “It’s nice to be in the hat, the club hasn’t been in it for a few years. We spoke before the start of the season and before today and said that the club’s record in the FA Cup hasn’t been great, and I know it’s a big competition for the fans as well, so we wanted as a bare minimum get to the third round. “We’ve done that, of course, the draw’s been not the most difficult we could have had, but it’s nice to be in the hat for the third round and we’ll be happy with whoever we get.” Quizzed on whether he fancies a return to his old stomping ground Old Trafford, he laughed: “That would be nice, but hopefully in the quarter-final!”  Buxton boss Vermiglio took pride in his team's display despite the defeat. “Very proud,” he said. “It was always going to be tough, we were always up against it. We prepared really well. “I think anyone watching the first 10 or 15 minutes, you could see what we were trying to do, and that was just to be stubborn, try not to concede easy chances and not to be picked open. “And I thought we managed that up to 30 minutes really well. That was our first objective, getting to 30 minutes, a third of the game done. “I wouldn’t say we looked comfortable, it was tough out there, we invited a lot of crosses, Burns did particularly well and shifted about 15 balls into the box in the first half. “It was always going to be tough and we were relying on a set piece, a free-kick or something for something to fall for us. “Unfortunately it didn’t. We had one or two little chances in the first half where it looked like we might latch onto something, but it was tough.”
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